Chapter 11

Beside them, the two maids, Daya and Erya, were laughing heartily. Fengshi glared at them and immediately advised Manbao, "Little Lady, our baskets are already hard to sell. If you add flowers and grass, they will be even harder to sell. These flowers and grass are everywhere on the mountain. Who among us, the peasants, would lack them?"

"But I saw that they clearly liked them. When I tried to give them, they all accepted," Manbao thought they were just being stingy and unwilling to spend money.

"Of course, they would take something given for free, but it's not worth paying for."

Manbao thought for a moment and had her own ideas, "No, if the flowers and grass don't look good, no one would take them even if they were free. So we need to find some people who aren't stingy. Once they see our beautiful flowers and grass, they will definitely buy them."

Fengshi replied, "But everyone at the market is stingy."

Manbao's shoulders slumped, "Alright, then we won't sell them today. We'll give them away for free. We'll wait until we find people who aren't stingy to sell them."

Fengshi was satisfied and let them use the flowers and grass to decorate the baskets they brought.

Daya and Erya immediately lent a hand to help.

Indeed, the baskets, after being decorated, looked much better and were particularly eye-catching when lined up. Even those who didn't need baskets stopped to take a second look, and those who needed baskets came up to ask the price.

The prices at the market had remained the same for years, rarely increasing. So their baskets were priced the same as others. Mr. Zhou's craftsmanship was also good, and after the customers picked through them, they either paid or bartered for the ones they liked.

The items typically used for bartering at the market were eggs, cloth, and grain.

Cloth was very expensive, and they had to pay a certain amount of it as a tax each year, so most people used eggs and grain from their homes to barter.

Of course, some used money, but it was rare.

After a round, Fengshi had collected a lot of grain and eggs, which she sorted and placed in the baskets and baskets on her back.

As the sun grew higher, Fengshi looked worriedly towards the end of the street, where her husband and elder brother-in-law had not yet returned.

Seeing that the children were all a bit listless, she knew they were hungry. She took out two pancakes from her basket, tore them open, and distributed them, "Here, eat a little with some water. When your elder brother and father come back, we can go home."

Wuzhulang and Liulang also took half a pancake from their sister-in-law, chewed it, and half-squatted, sighing, "It must be hard to sell. The autumn harvest just passed, and no one lacks grain."

"Shush, children speak without restraint. May the wind blow it away. Your husband and brother-in-law will surely have a smooth journey," Fengshi said, "Wu, you should say more auspicious words."

"Auspicious words are easy to say. I pray to the God of Wealth every night, hoping our family will become rich and noble, but it hasn't come true yet."

Manbao was very interested and asked the system in her mind, "Keko, is the God of Wealth in heaven? Can you see him?"

System: "… No, and there probably isn't a God of Wealth in this world."

"How can there not be? We worship him every year, along with the Kitchen God and the Earth God…"

System: "People in the future are firm atheists, so they believe there are no gods."

This was the opposite of the stories Manbao had heard since childhood. She was stunned for a moment, then quickly thought it through and excitedly said, "It must be because there are no gods in your world, so they all came to our world."

System: "It's not bad to think that way."

Manbao said, "Can the gods be more powerful than you? Can they also make things disappear and reappear with a snap of their fingers, and fulfill my wishes?"

"I fulfill the host's wishes based on the completion of the tasks I assign. There is no such thing as a free gift in this world."

Manbao nodded thoughtfully, "You and the gods are the same. I think the gods must think the same way. But since they don't talk to me, how do I know what their tasks are?"

The system didn't respond.

Manbao, however, began to think. Putting herself in the gods' shoes, she soon had an idea and exclaimed in her mind, "I know!"

Then she pulled Wuzhulang aside, "That won't work. You only pray at night, which shows you're not sincere. You need to help the God of Wealth, and then he will fulfill your wishes."

Wuzhulang asked, "What can I do to help him?"

"Like cleaning for him, serving him tea and food," Manbao explained logically, "I do the same for Mr. Zhuang. I clean for him, and he teaches me to read. I serve him tea and food, and he gives me his used paper. You should do the same for the God of Wealth."

Wuzhulang laughed and asked Manbao, "Where is the God of Wealth?"

The children looked up at the blue sky together and sighed, "He's in heaven."

Fengshi listened to their childish talk with a blank expression, fully focused on organizing the items they had bartered. However, a nearby villager who was also selling at the market was envious and praised her, "Sister, your children are really smart."

Their children never thought or said such things, spending their days playing in the mud or looking for wild fruits to eat.

Fengshi smiled at them, "Children, they come up with a new idea every day. No one knows what they're thinking."

Everyone laughed, "That's true. We couldn't understand what our children said until they were three."

Fengshi didn't eat the pancake, saving one for Zhou Dalang and Zhou Erlang. Seeing Manbao gnawing on a small piece of pancake with great effort but making little progress, she knew Manbao wasn't used to it.

After all, Manbao had never traveled far and was used to eating hot food at home.

After some thought, Fengshi asked Wuzhulang to watch the stall while she took out two eggs to find a household in the village to boil them for her little sister.

As soon as Fengshi left, Manbao immediately took out a handkerchief-wrapped item from her bosom, actually from Keko.

Unwrapping the handkerchief, inside was a candy wrapped in oil paper. This time, the reward from Cipao was more generous because, in the future, this item had become extinct. The encyclopedia had records and photos of it but no actual entries.

Manbao not only recorded the fruit but also a young plant, so the encyclopedia generously awarded her fifty points.

Keko deducted eighteen points for her historical debt, which was actually the points Keko had given her to dig up plants and record them.

Manbao was left with thirty-two points, the most she had ever earned. Previously, recording flowers and grass had only earned her a fraction of a point.

These points were earned after Keko and the encyclopedia negotiated, as the plants she had recorded previously already had actual entries in the encyclopedia and still existed in the future.

The one point was an encouragement point.

However, Manbao found the term "encouragement" quite appealing and was proud of it. Every time she earned points, she exchanged them for candy, never thinking about repaying Keko.

This candy, meant for children, was the cheapest. One point could buy a large bag, which contained about a hundred pieces. Keko said it was sold by weight, at wholesale prices, and was very cheap.

It came in various colors.

Manbao initially loved the brightly colored ones, but Keko, for her safety, bought mostly yellow and red candies, similar to the ones available now.

As for the brightly colored ones, Keko had bought a pack for her and kept it in the system to eat slowly.

Most of the other candies she had given away, as she was a generous child.

Manbao never kept the candy to herself and would often give a piece to her brothers and nieces and nephews.

Her best friends, Daya, Erya, and Sanya, received the most candy.

Along with Old Zhou, Qian Shi, and the other sisters-in-law, they often received the sugar water she made, so her candy was quickly consumed.

When the points arrived last night, she bought a pack of candy, peeled many pieces in the system, and wrapped them in oil paper from the second brother's candy purchases, then wrapped them again in her handkerchief for today.

Seeing her sister-in-law leave, Manbao quietly took out the candy and whispered to her friends, "Let's sell these candies?"

Wuzhulang and the others, seeing the candy, couldn't help but drool and asked, "Manbao, I remember the last time the second brother came to the market, all the candy he bought was eaten by us. Where did you get this?"

Manbao, having just connected Keko with the gods, said mysteriously and proudly, "The gods gave them to me."

The children didn't believe her because she had previously said a friend named Keko gave them to her, and before that, she said they were from their descendants, and even said a person named the system gave them to her.

So, they completely disbelieved her.

Although they didn't believe her, they still asked as a matter of course and stared at the candy, "It might be hard to sell so many. Should we eat some first?"

"Yes, it's hard to sell," Dada also encouraged Manbao, "Let's eat some first. It will be easier to sell if there are fewer."

Manbao, not being stupid, held the candy and said, "No, our family is in trouble now. We need to learn to endure hardship, so we can't eat candy for now."

Everyone looked dejected.

Manbao comforted them, "When our family has money, it will be better. Then my candy won't be sold; I'll give it all to you. For now, we need to buy medicine for Mother."

Indeed, Manbao was in a hurry to sell the candy to buy medicine for her mother. Yesterday, Qian Shi's medicine ran out, and she was in discomfort, gasping for breath for half the night. Manbao, who had been sleeping soundly, woke up when her father got up to give her mother water and massage her back. That's when she slipped into the space to peel the candy wrappers.

She felt that nothing was more important than buying medicine for her mother.

The children, being filial, immediately agreed and promised to work hard to sell the candy.

Thus, they began to look for suitable buyers, who should have children and be well-dressed.